In all honesty, I don’t mind cooking dinner every night during quarantine. Cooking calms me – and making dinner is part of my regular routine anyway.

What I do mind? All the dishes. I swear quarantine has tripled the number of dishes that need to washed. So, my new policy for summer to to just throw everything on the grill whenever humanly possible.

This dish is the perfect summer dinner because it’s cooked entirely on the grill and then tossed with a simple sauce. It’s done in less than a half hour, and the dishes are minimal.

Despite being great eaters and willing to try almost anything, my kids will still always pick pizza – which means we end up infusing pizza flavors into many different forms in our kitchen!

These pizza waffles first entered into our regular rotation when we were redoing the kitchen in our first home and needed meals that didn’t require the oven. Many years and two kids later, they’re still a favorite.

You know that everything-but-the-bagel seasoning that’s all the rage? I’d had it in my cabinet forever and finally broke it open one night when I was trying to throw together dinner last minute.

This chicken was the result, and the kids happily ate it and I patted myself on the back for a successful dinner and moved on.

The kids didn’t, though. They kept asking for it again. And again. And then one night, Jake asked, “Mom, don’t you want to blog this one?” So, here it is. If you like this one, you can thank Jake for kicking my butt into gear.

This epic burger is part of a month-long event hosted by Girl Carnivore, but opinions are always my own!

Welcome to #BurgerMonth!

The warmer weather – and the start of grilling season – is something I look forward to every year. Being able to spend lazy days in the backyard capped off with dinner on the deck feels my soul in the best ways. Of course, one of our favorite warm-weather meals is burgers!

I love switching things up and trying new burgers, but this is one that I come back to again and again. It’s my tried-and-true burger patty smothered in my favorite sauce – and it’s a perfect burger for summer.

Like this:

You’d think the fact that we’re all home with no real schedule would make lunch easier, but we’re finding that is so not the case. By the time lunch rolls around, I’m always scrambling and, of course, going out to grab something just isn’t an option right now.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of Incredible One-Pot Cooking for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I recently asked on Instagram what your biggest current dinner challenge is. One of the most common responses? Making interesting dinners that don’t involve a ton of cleanup.

Megan Marlowe’s new cookbook, Incredible One-Pot Cooking, totally nails this problem. Chock full of fun spins on traditional favs, this is cookbook your family will love – mine definitely does! – and I’m excited to share a preview with you today.

Today is Good Friday, and the wrap-up to another year of the Lenten dinner series. It’s a heavy day for Christians made heavier for everyone by the current pandemic. I chose something comforting for today – because I think right now we all need it.

This pot pie is just loaded with veggies so it’s hearty in the best way. The filling is flexible – but I chose veggies with a longer shelf life so this could easily be a “week 2 meal” if you’re trying to space out your grocery trips.

Like this:

Today marks three weeks of social distancing for us. We are trying to stay home as much as possible in this weird, temporary normal, which means my 2-3 grocery trips per week have been severely cut back – we made it 18 days before our first grocery run and we’re hoping to make it another 2-3 weeks before going back.

If you’re trying to space grocery trips, this is an ideal meal for week two. The vegetables used here hold up pretty well to a week in the fridge – and even if they start getting a little soft, you’ll never be able to tell after roasting them!

And, how is everyone doing? Honestly, we’re coming off a week of survival mode – all last week we were passing around a seemingly-un-pandemic-related stomach bug so I never got this post up for our Lenten Friday series.

Given everything going on in the world, sometimes plugging along with the Lenten Friday series as normal feels weird – after all, our diocese granted a dispensation from abstaining from meat on Fridays for the rest of Lent.

But, we’re all just pressing on and doing our best, aren’t we?

So in the spirit of pressing on, last week’s Lenten Friday becomes this week’s Meatless Monday – because I couldn’t hold onto these awesome vegetarian burgers any more.